Workshop 4 Creating Usable Content

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Workshop 4Creating Usable Content

• Web Content Accessibility Project
• Funded by BCcampus
• Natasha Boskic, Kirsten Bole, Nathan Hapke
• University of British Columbia

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Workshop schedule

• Monday August 21Basics of Web Accessibility
• Tuesday August 22Coding an Accessible Website
• Wednesday August 23Accessible Multimedia
• Thursday August 24Creating Usable Content
• Friday August 25Disabilities Assistive
  Technology

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The Plan

• How is web content different from print?
• Learning disabilities learning styles
• Site structure navigation
• Use of different media

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Its hard to read a screen

• Screen 72 dpi (dots per inch)
• Print 200-300 dpi
• Staring at screen creates eyestrain
• Sitting at desktops is also tiring
• Result people dont read as much onlineas they
  do in print

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Reading in bits pieces

• Web readers skim pages looking for key points
  ideas
• Headlines, blurbs, summaries
• Shorter paragraphs, bullet points preferred
• Print out large documents to read offline

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Students with learning disabilities

• Learning difficulties dyslexia, ADHD
• Cognitive difficulties brain injury, autism, age
• Poor concentration, memory, problem-solving,
  and/or time management
• Anxiety, frustration

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Facing learning disabilities

• Guessing at content, rather than reading it
• Skimming looking for bolded keywords
• Rereading the same passage repeated times
• Avoiding interacting online
• Difficulty interpreting instructions
• but all students disabilities are different

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Dealing with Learning Disabilities

• Academic consulting advice essential
• Some tools used by blind visually impaired can
  be useful for LDs
• Screenreader highlights text and/or reads it
  aloud
• Predictive typing assists with spelling correct
  word choice

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Learning styles

• Sage on the stage or sage on the screen -
  traditional teaching method doesnt work for
  everyone
• Reinforce one concept with different methods
• Mix match for maximum effect

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Learning styles

• Visual-verbal prefers to read
• Visual-nonverbal charts, animations, videos
• Auditory prefers to listen
• Tactile learn by doing, interaction
• Sensory fact-based activities

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Preferred approaches

• Intuitive reflection imagination
• Inductive/deductive examples, theories
• Active through application or work w/others
• Reflective think about topics before engaging
• Understanding see big picture first
• Sequential step by step

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Applying this to YOUR content
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Website structure

• Map out your site before building it
• Goal keep your navigation simple and consistent
  on every page
• What sections subsections will you need?
• What might you need to add in the future? Where
  would that go?

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Navigation

• Group similar items together
• Keep same on every page
• Offer site map, search, index

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Keep it clean

• Avoid distracting animations
• Avoid background patterns

No, no, no.
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Keep it clean

• High contrast text is important

but be careful with your colour choices
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Keep it quiet

• Dont autoplay sounds
• Distracting, disturbing
• Interferes with screenreaders
• The same goes for pop-up windows

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Redundancy can be good

• Good content can take many forms
• Reinforce ideas through multiple media
• Offer same content as text, image, video,
  interactive tool

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Assignment options

• Offer students a choice between essays,
  presentations, posters
• Different ways of expressing same knowledge
• Makes gradingmore interesting,too

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Assignment criteria

• Clear, unambiguous directions
• Built-in checkpoints benefit LD students
• How will you approach this problem?
• Submit a paragraph summary of your project
• Submit a proposed project schedule

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File formats

• PDF, Word, Excel, PPT often used unnecessarily
• Content could be on web instead
• Good for forms, complicated charts, anything that
  must look perfectly consistent to everyone
• Warn if user is about to download file

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Getting started

• Which learning styles do your course materials
  appeal to the most?
• What parts of your online course materials could
  be offered in another format or media?
• How could you modify your course to benefit
  learning-disabled students?

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Thank you for coming!

• Join us tomorrow for Disabilities Assistive
  Technology - 12 pm PST
• Natasha Boskic (natasha.boskic_at_ubc.ca)
• Kirsten Bole (kirsten.bole_at_ubc.ca)
• Nathan Hapke (nhapke_at_interchange.ubc.ca)
• Thanks to Deb Butler of UBC for her advice on
  learning disabilities
• Thanks to Kevin Kelly of SFSU for his advice on
  Universal Design and learning styles.